What did you do?!

By Janice from Texas

My favorite piercing is my tongue. Out of all of my 20 or so piercings, I have always been attached to my belly, industrial, and tongue. My tongue, though, has been an adventure.
I was about 12 when one day I was in the grocery store and I noticed a woman with a tongue ring, and I was like,”That is awesome!” I wanted one so bad that I kept asking my mom if I could get one. She, of course, is one of those no piercings allowed parents. I finally got upset at her one day and decided to pierce my own tongue.
I was alone on a Saturday night and I had already gotten a tongue ring from a friend that had gotten his pierced about a month earlier. I decided to use a sewing needle again like I had done on my belly before( another story). I had no idea what I was doing, but I wanted it sooooo much I could no longer deal with the compulsion to have it. I stuck out my tongue, and I pushed the needle through the top of my tongue in the area where you are supposed to do it( my friend told me). It ddn’t hurt as bad as I thought until I tried to push the jewelry through. I winded up leaving the sewing needle in my tongue until the next day. I tried pushing it in and I succeeded after an hour or so.Yay! So I thought.
A month went by, my tongue healing properly, and I decided to change out the metal bar I had to a plastic one. I had it in a week and my tongue started to itch like crazy. I didn’t want to take out the bar because it was pretty and I had lost my other one. It turns out my body prefers metal to plastic, so my tongue got an infection. I treated the infection, but I noticed my tongue was starting to scar a little. It was then that I decided to take out my beloved piercing. I was upset, but I got my piercing back for my 18th birthday.